Change The Station

I

t’s one of my favorite past times or worst habits—I can’t decide which! Every time I get in the car, I immediately start cruising through all the radio stations on the dial.  Sometimes I am lucky, finding wonderful music as soon as I turn on the radio.  Most often, however, I don’t like what’s currently playing, or there are too many commercials, or the announcer just doesn’t peak my interest.  Whatever the reason, I will push buttons until I find something I want to hear.

If you stop to think about it, the radio is quite an amazing piece of technology.  All around us, radio waves are dancing through the air carrying news, sports, commentaries, and music to all parts of our world.  At any given moment, the air surrounding us is chock full of information but we can neither see it nor hear it.  In order for us to understand and enjoy the contents of those wonderful little waves, we have to have a radio receiver.  But more importantly, even with the receiver we must tune-in to the exact frequency in order to receive and enjoy those signals carried by radio waves.

It might surprise you to discover that Jesus, himself, spoke of this very phenomenon.  Now I am not claiming that Jesus Christ was like a teenager in car casually flipping through stations looking for the latest musical hit!  However, I am saying that the principle of finding the right frequency is a biblical concept and one that Jesus spoke to on several occasions.

The best example of this is found in John 5:17-19, Jesus said to them, "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working. For this reason, the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. Jesus gave them this answer: "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does."

We must understand the context of this passage if we are to glean anything of substance from what our Lord had to say.  Jesus had just healed a man who was an invalid for 38 years.  Jesus found him by the Pool of Bethesda and asked if he wanted to be healed.  The man said yes and Jesus healed him.  This took place on the Sabbath, a day in which no one could do any work.  The religious leaders of the day chided the man for carrying his bed on the Sabbath and he explained that Jesus told him to “take up his bed and walk.”  The leaders were furious!!  They took no notice of the fact that the man stood before them healed of his disease.  Instead, they were indignant that the law of the Sabbath had been broken.  They seriously need to change the station and tune in to God’s work, didn’t they?

Now, let’s not be too hard on the Pharisees because we are just like them!!  I know that statement is hard to read because it was hard to write!  We get so involved with all types of activities.  We attend every service, we look for committees to join, we invent ways “to do God’s work,” and we are always changing stations, believing that one activity is more holy than the next.  Unfortunately, in the process of changing channels, we never tune-in to what God is saying and we completely miss all the wonderful things He sends our way on a moment-by-moment basis.

Notice in this passage that Jesus says God is always working.  God never rests; He is always busy, working in our lives to make us more like Jesus.  Like radio waves, God’s presence and work are all around us but we must set our dial to His frequency!  Far too often we want God to tune-in to our frequency and get on our agenda!  I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it simply won’t happen this way!  Jesus continued in the verse by saying that the Son, meaning Jesus himself, can do nothing except what he observed the Father doing.  Furthermore, Jesus said that whatever the Father did, he did also!  Stop and let that sink in deep!!!!  Jesus knew not only the importance but also the necessity of tuning-in to God’s frequency.  If the Son of God tells us that he had to tune to the right frequency to have the correct relationship with God, I ask you, where does that leave us?

Look at the radio on your desk, in your home, or think about the one in your car!   Whatever you are listening to today is made possible only by the fact that your dial is tuned to the correct frequency.  If this is true in the physical world, how much more important is this truth applicable in our relationship with God?  I encourage you today to stop flipping through all the spiritual channels, selecting only the ones that make you “feel good.”  Instead, open God’s word and tune you heart to His frequency today.  You will never be disappointed and you will always receive the best of the best on this frequency.  So what are you waiting for?  Change the station!